The Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, has said former Vice-President Atiku Abubakars presidential bid in the 2023 poll will fail because it is against the principle of power rotation between the South and North.
Okechukwu, also a foundation member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said this when he spoke with newsmen in Abuja, yesterday.
The VON DG referred to the patriotic position of APC Northern Governors letter to President Muhammadu Buhari on June 4, as evidence that the rotation of the presidency between the North and South is intended to unite the country.
Okechukwu also recalled former President Olusegun Obasanjos statement on the matter, where he was quoted to have said: I am very much aware that its the turn of the South to produce the next President of Nigeria. I was part of the meeting when the agreement was made between Northern and Southern Leaders. I am even surprised PDP gave its ticket to another Northern candidate. It will be an injustice to the South if the North retains power after 8 years of rule.
Consequently, Okechukwu said that it would be a herculean task for Atiku in his mission to divide North and South to defeat the APC Northern Governors Forum, Buhari, Obasanjo, and a host of other unifier patriots like Afenifere Leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, Gov. Wilson Wike, Chief Edwin Clark and uncountable unifier patriots who supported power shift from North to South.
Responding to suggestions that Atiku may be running on the trajectory that democracy confers the right to vote and be voted for, the VON DG said that although democracy provides for freedom as one of its ethos, if others had engaged in unforced error breach of rotation convention, and division of North and South, Obasanjo could have imposed Sir Peter Odili as President in 2007, instead of Umaru Musa YarAdua.
He challenged all unifiers and genuine democrats to join hands and stop Abubakar before he divides the North and the South by rubbishing the political power rotation arrangement between them, which is the bond of our unity and the health of our democracy.
The Enugu APC chieftain said Obasanjos statement that a wrong outcome of the 2023 general election could consume Nigeria is a veiled warning of the dangers of voting for another northern presidential candidate to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.
